Urup

Alaid

Kuril Island Geology

Bre MacInnes

Ekarma

Brat Chirpoev

Earth and Space Sciences

~Seattle

Map by Adam Freeburg

Outline

• Why study the Kurils?• General overview• Geologic history• Eruptive history and tephra• Seismicity and tsunamis• Terraces• Summary

• Locations of interestParamushir

Why study the Kurils?

• Proportionally large coastal area• Fluctuating sediment supplies• Volcanic land-level change• Tectonic land-level change• Tsunamis• Large storms

Great potential for dramatic changes in coastal area and geometry!

Chirpoi

General overview

• Climate: – 60-90 day/yr strong storms (wind blows >15

m/s)– 2-8 typhoons/yr (winds ~ 50m/s)– fog >180 days/yr– offshore ice ~75 days/yr (southern islands)– tide range 1.2-1.7 m (southern islands)

• wind forcing 1.5-2 m (max 6 m). [Bulgakov, 1996]

• Holocene Optimum: 5,000-6,000 BP[Korotky et al., 1995]

visibleearth.nasa.gov

General overview

Glacial extent during Last Glacial Maximum

Stevenson, 2001

Geologic history

Onekotan

Geologic history

Lesser Kurils•Cretaceous-Eocene

subduction of Kula plate

•Subaerial: Paleocene- Eocene and recent

Kimura and Tamaki, 1985

Geologic history

Greater Kurils•Rotation of Okhotsk

plate in Oligocene and subduction of Pacific

•Emerged in Pliocene

Kimura and Tamaki, 1985

Geologic history

Kuril “Plate”•Late Miocene

•Divides active ridge from trench in south

•Due to oblique subduction of Pacific

Kimura and Tamaki, 1985

Eruptive History

Atlasova

Onekotan

Eruptive History

Largest Eruptions

Tao-Rusyr9400 BP

Ushishir9400 BP

Lvinaya-Past7500 BP

Ishizuka, 2001; Braitseva et al., 1995

Eruptive History

17901981 Aliad

185319862003

Chikurachki

1872 Shiashkotan

17781924 Raikoke

1946 Matua

1712 Chirpoi

1973 Tyatya

NASA’s Earth Observatory

Ishizuka, 2001

~14

11

8

19

Tephra

Local, Japan and

China

Local

Local and Kamchatka

Ishizuka, 2001; Rajigaeva et al., 1998; Nakagawa et al., 2002

Tephra 1943-1945 AD Usu (Hokkaido)

1856 AD Ko-c1 Komagatake (Hokkaido)

1739 AD Ta-a Tarumai (Hokkaido)

1694 AD Ko-c2 Komagatake (Hokkaido)

1400-1500 AD Ma-b Mashu (Hokkaido)

969 AD B-Tm Baitousan (China)

1700-1800 BP Ma-d Mashu (Hokkaido)

~2000 BP Eniwa (Hokkaido)

~2000 BP Ko-e Komagatake (Hokkaido)

~3000 BP Komagatake (Hokkaido)

3600-3800 BP Ma-e Mashu (Hokkaido)

~4200 BP Mendeleev

~6000 BP Ma-f Mashu (Hokkaido)

~7100 BP Golovnin

Kunashir

Nakagawa et al, 2002From Nakagawa et al, 2002 and Razjigaeva

et al, 1998

Seismicity

Simushir

Paramushir

Seismicity

neic.usgs.gov

> 3.0 since 1973

Seismicity

neic.usgs.gov

Earthquakes > 6.5

Seismicity

-2500

-2000

-1500

-1000

-500

0

500

1000

1500

2000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

m (

ele

va

tio

n)

an

d e

q. c

ou

nt

Mean elevation

# EQ

S N

IturupTotal Earthquakes

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1S N

Seismicity

Bend

1737 27 m Shumshu

1780 12 m10 m

UrupChirpoi, Simushir, Ketoi

1843

1853 Simushir

1918 6 m12 m

IturupUrup

1933 9 m Kharimkotan

1952 18 m15 m9 m8 m

ParamushirShumshuOnekotanShiashkotan

1958 3 m Kunashir, Iturup, Urup

1960 5 m “Kurils”

1963 (Oct 13th)

1.5 m4 m

2.5 m

KunashirIturup and UrupParamushir

1963 (Oct 20th)

8 m6-15 m

IturupUrup

1973 3 m

1975 2-5 m Kunashir

1983 3 m Kunashir

1994 6.5 m3 m

KunashirIturup

Tsunamis

From Novosibirsk and NGDC tsunami catalogs

Iliev et al, 2005

Tsunamis

~ 500 yr recurrance interval of large tsunamis in Hokkaido (Nanayama et al, 2003)

Marine Terraces

• Kunashir, Iturup and Urup:– ~ 7 terraces in total (3 m - 250 m)

– 2-3 Holocene, 3-4 possibly correlating to interglacials

– No correlation between islands?• Volcanic, not tectonic (Korotky et al, 1995)

– Uplift estimates:• 2.5-2.8 mm/yr uplift- Pleistocene (Melekestsev 1974)

• 0.8-0.9 mm/yr uplift- Pleistocene (Korotky et al, 1995)

• 0.28 mm/yr uplift- Pleistocene (Pushkar et al, 1998) • 2 mm/yr subsidence- late Holocene (Bulgakov 1994)

Ketoi

Constructional Terraces

5,000-6,000 Holocene Optimum (0-3.5 m above m.s.l.)

Development of barriers, lagoons, etc.

4,700-4,500 Regression Dunes

4,000-3,400 Sea level rise (2.5 m)

2,900-2,600 Sea level rise

2,200-2,000 Cooling, minor regression Isthmuses connected; lagoons turn into swamps

1,000-800 Sea level rise 2.5 m terrace

Little Ice Age Regression Dunes

Razjigaeva et al, 2002; Korotky et al, 1995

For Kunashir, Iturup, and Urup

Summary

• Climate:– The oldest beach ridges: ~5,000-6,000 yrs old– Large storm waves = high beach ridges– S. islands affected by sea ice– N. islands may have glacial features

• Geologic history:– The islands are all fairly young– The Lesser Kurils are currently uplifting

Summary

• Volcanoes:– Many locations to study dated sediment fluxes– Tephra on Kunashir studied

• On other islands we will have to do our own work

• Earthquakes:– Central region relatively aseismic– 500 year recurrance of tsunamis in the south

Rasshua

Summary

• Terraces– Nobody agrees on how many, how old, or

why, but terraces do exist!Onekotan

Iturup

UrupIturup

Kunashir

Chirpoi

Chirpoi

Ketoi

Shiashkotan

Paramushir

Satellite images of interesting proposed sites for this summer

Kunashir

Kunashir

Kunashir

Kunashir

Iturup

Iturup

Iturup

Urup

Urup

Central Islands

Central Islands

Central Islands

Central Islands

Central Islands

Paramushir

Paramushir

References (1)• Pictures from http://artedi.fish.washington.edu/okhotskia/ikip/Gallery/ unless

otherwise noted.• Satellite images from Google Earth unless otherwise noted.• Novosibirsk (tsun.sscc.ru/htdbpac/) and NGDC

(www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/tsupub.shtml) tsunami catalogs • Braitseva, O A; Melekestsev, I V; Ponomareva, V V; Sulerzhitsky, L D, 1995, Ages

of calderas, large explosive craters and active volcanoes in the Kuril-Kamchatka region, Russia, Bulletin of Volcanology, vol.57, no.6, pp.383-402. Bulgakov 1996

• Bulgakov, R. 1996: Reconstruction of Quaternary History of Southern Kurile Islands. Journal of Coastal Research 12, 930–39.

• Iliev, A.Y., Kaistrenko, V.M., Gretskaya, E.V., Tikhonchuk, E.A., Razijaeva, N.G., Grebennikova, T.A., Ganzey, L.A., and Kharlamov, A.A., 2005, Holocene tsunami traces on Kunashir Island, Kurile subduction zone, in Satake, K., ed., Tsunamis; Case Studies and Recent Developments: Dordrecht, Netherlands, Springer, p. 171-192.

• Ishizuka, T., B. Fitzhugh, and M. Nakagawa, 2001: Volcanic activity and recent tephras in the Kuril Islands: Field results during the International Kuril Island Project (IKIP). Poster presented at the International Symposium on Kuril Island Biogeography. 19-22 May 2001. University of Hokkaido, Sapporo.Kimura and Tamaki, 1985

• Korotky, A.M., Razjigaeva, N.G., Grebennikova, T.A., Ganzey, L.A., Mokhova, L.M., Bazarova, V.B., Sulerzhitsky, L.D., 1995, Holocene marine terraces of Kunashiri Island, Kurile Islands, The Quaternary Research, vol 34, no. 5, p. 359-375.

References (2)• Melekestsev, I.V., Braitseva, O.A., Erlikh, E.N., Shantser, A.E., Chelebaeva, A.I.,

Lupikina, E.G., Egorova, I.A., and Kozhemyaka, N.N., 1974, Kamchatka, Kurile and Komandar Islands. History of development of relief of Siveria and Far East. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian)

• Nakagawa M, Ishizuka Y, Kudo T, Yoshimoto M, Hirose W, Ishizaki Y, Gouchi N, Katsui Y, Solovyow AW, Steinberg GS, Abdurakhmanov AI, 2002, Tyatya Volcano, southwestern Kuril arc: Recent eruptive activity inferred from widespread tephra, ISLAND ARC 11 (4): 236-254

• Nanayama, F; Satake, Kenji; Furukawa, R; Shimokawa, Koichi; Atwater, B F; Shigeno, K; Yamaki, S, 2003, Unusually large earthquakes inferred from tsunami deposits along the Kuril Trench, Nature (London), vol.424, no.6949, pp.660-663.

• Pushkar VS, Razzhigaeva NG, Korotkii AM, Mokhova LM, 1998, The late Golovnino transgression of the middle Pleistocene in the Kunashir Island (Kuril islands), Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation, 6 (6): 584-595.

• Razjigaeva, N.G., Korotky, A.M., Grebennikova, T.A., Ganzey, L.A., Mokhova, L.M., Bazarova, V.B., Sulerzhitsky, L.D., Lutaenko, K.A., 2002. Holocene climatic changes and environmental history of Iturup Island, Kurile Islands, northwestern Pacific. Holocene 12 (4), 469–480.

• Razjigaeva N. G., GREBENNIKOVA T. A., GANZEI L. A., BAZAROVA V. B., MOKHOVA L. M. & KOROTKY A. M. 1998. 14C ages of tephra layers from the Holocene deposits of Kunashir Island (Russian Far East). Radiocarbon 40, 841–7.Stevenson, 2001